This invention relates generally to a sliding door closure apparatus for opening and closing a sliding door on a vehicle.
Van type vehicles for passengers and for cargo are frequently equipped with sliding side doors. Rollers support and guide such sliding doors by running in fixed tracks. Sliding doors may be positioned on both sides of a vehicle or a single sliding door may be positioned on one side of a vehicle. However, most vans include a single sliding door positioned on a side of the van opposite the vehicle operator""s station. When seated at the vehicle operator""s station, a vehicle operator can open or close sliding doors of this type only by leaving the operator""s station and either walking around the outside of the vehicle to the sliding door or crossing inside the vehicle to the sliding door. Crossing inside the vehicle is often difficult or impossible due to the presence of cargo and/or passengers positioned inside the van between the operator""s station and the door. If a sliding door is positioned on the same side of the van as the operator""s station, the operator still must leave the operator""s station to open and shut the sliding door from either the inside or outside of the vehicle.
To allow an operator to open and close a sliding door from the operator""s station and/or another location remote from the sliding door, powered sliding door closure systems have been developed. An example of such a system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,365 which issued May 31, 1994 to Kuhlman et al., is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and is incorporated herein by reference. The Kuhlman et al. patent discloses a sliding door closure apparatus that includes a sliding door mounted in a van on rollers and slidably supported in upper, center and lower tracks. An opening and closing module is mounted inside the van adjacent the center track. A front cable is attached to a front cable drive pulley or spool and extends from the front spool to the sliding door through a front cable roller guide assembly. A rear cable is attached to a rear cable drive pulley or spool and extends from the rear spool to the sliding door through a rear cable roller guide assembly. The front and rear cable drive spools each have a large diameter helical cable groove, a small diameter helical cable groove and a transition cable groove that connects and provides a cable path between the large and small diameter grooves. A motor rotates the front and rear cable drive spools to move the sliding door. The small diameter cable grooves of the cable drive spools are configured to drive the sliding door slowly when the door is in the forward portion of the tracks, i.e., when the door is moving into and out of a closed position. The large diameter cable grooves of the spools are configured to drive the sliding door more quickly when the door is in center and rear portions of the tracks away from the closed position. The sliding door closure apparatus disclosed in the Kuhlman et al. patent also includes fixed idler rollers that guide the front and rear cables to and from the cable drive spools.
According to the invention, a sliding door closure apparatus for opening and closing a sliding door on a vehicle is provided. The apparatus includes helical front and rear cable grooves supportable on the vehicle for rotation about a helix axis. A front cable receptacle is disposed in the front cable groove and is configured to receive one end of a front cable that extends from the front cable groove to a vehicle sliding door in a position to be wound into and unwound from the front cable groove in response to front cable groove rotation in respective opposing directions about the helix axis. A rear cable receptacle is disposed in the rear cable groove and is configured to receive one end of a rear cable that extends from the rear cable groove to the sliding door in a position to be unwound from and wound onto the rear cable groove in response to rear cable groove rotation in respective opposing directions about the helix axis.
The sliding door closure apparatus also includes a single cable drive spool supported on the vehicle for rotation about the helix axis and including both the front and the rear cable grooves. Therefore, a sliding door closure apparatus constructed according to the invention requires less packing space and fewer parts to operate than prior art door closure systems.